An Entity Observes All Things

An Entity Observes All Things is a collection of short science-fiction stories told in graphic format.  They range from the mundane with fantastical settings to the abstract.  In the first story, a man relives the death of his father; the author, Box Brown, draws obvious inspiration from Philip K. Dick.  The title story, on the other hand, is a little more Stanislaw Lem.  Bebeshit is an alien entity living among sentient tulips who she cannot communicate with.  She observes the Earth and its inhabitants before escaping on a shooting star.

Definitely the best way to enjoy this book is one story at a time.  If you read the entire collection at once, it'll be too much to process, and you'll miss a lot.  The comics themselves are tri-colored, with black, white, and one other color, differing in each story.  The prose is a little turgid at times, swollen with sci-fi-isms, and that contributes to the reader needing rest between each story, although I think this is intentional, as Brown's book on Andre the Giant was much easier reading.

At 152 pages, An Entity Observes All Things is a neat little present to myself.  The title is sold out on Amazon.com, but it's available at the Retrofit store.  And like before, you'll not regret it if you buy the entire 2015 Retrofit catalog for $75.  This is a very cerebral comic, one I enjoyed immensely.  The comparisons to Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem aren't made lightly.